Little Lenses: 3 Miniature Cameras Tested

Sub Title: Little Lenses: 3 Miniature Cameras Tested

The Toy

This Japanese import may be lacking in megapixels, but it doubles down on cuteness.

At 2.4 inches long and 0.8 inches thick, the Mr. Digital Clover Keychain Camera fits in a front pocket, and is right at home attached to your everyday keyring -- the pleasantly grippy rubber coating protects it from getting scratched by your keys. The most delicate parts aren't exposed to pocket abuse, either -- to use it, pull one end outward until the lens cover slides away and the petite viewfinder pops up. Super kawaii!

Unfortunately, that's just about where the pros end. With only a 2-megapixel sensor and barely a lens to speak of, the Mr. Digital Clover is marketed as "loveably lo-fi." The images and video are certainly lo-fi, but not all that loveable. Any vignetting or other type of endearing degredation is minimal at best. Photos taken with the 1600x1200-resolution high setting look pretty good -- when you can hold the camera still enough for your scene to stay in focus. Snapping photos with the f2.8 lens in anything but bright, natural sunlight is basically out of the question.

The 10fps silent videos I shot with it do have a cool 8mm feel to them -- perfect if you want to make a fun, retro-style home movie. Whether you shoot video or take a photo, there is a large amount of shutter lag -- at least one second. It seems like an eternity.

The biggest problem with the Mr. Digital Clover Keychain Camera (found elsewhere online in various iterations as the VQ2005) is that it appears to have a serious battery drain issue. I went through one AAA battery per day while I was testing this guy. A brand-new full battery drops to about half charge within about 10 to 15 minutes of continuous use, or around 10 photos. For something this tiny, that's a huge flaw.

WIRED Scores high with the cute factor and takes fun, retro-looking silent videos. Straightforward to operate. To swap between settings (high, medium or low resolution image, or video), you tap the power button. Inexpensive.

TIRED Serious battery problems. Frustrating software issues -- Error 58? What does that mean? THE MANUAL IS IN JAPANESE. Only has 4MB of storage, so you'll need to purchase an SD card separately. I wouldn't pay $5 for this thing, much less $55.

The Old Fashioned

The tiny shooter is styled after the silver spy camera CIA operatives used in the 1940s. It's got a removable viewfinder up top and a host of realistic-looking knobs that are, unfortunately, just for decoration. It's pretty, though.

The palm-sized camera can take 5.1-megapixel stills and shoot up to one minute of 320x240 video -- not too great. Three distance settings (0.5 meters, 1 meter and infinity) help make sure you can capture your subject in focus, whether it's a city skyline or a portrait of a friend. It accepts SD cards (up to 16GB, not included) and has 128MB of onboard storage. The internal lithion-ion battery recharges over USB, which is also how you unload photos.

Pictures generally look good -- about iPhone quality -- but there's no image stabilization, so if you're heavy-handed with the shutter you'll end up with blurry shots. I wish Minox had added some filter options to this camera so photos ended up with a nostalgic feel on par with the camera's look.

If you're thinking this would make a good gift, you should know Minox doesn't skimp on presentation. The company understands this is more of a fashion item than a serious camera, so it arrives in a delightful wooden gift box.

WIRED Oozes style. Good photos. Optical viewfinder is a nice touch, but a two-inch LCD viewfinder is there as well. On-screen menus look like a throwback to Windows 95 -- in a good way.

TIRED Unwieldy shape necessitates deep jacket pocket or in-bag storage. It's not going to replace a regular point-and-shoot or your smartphone camera, but that's not why you're buying it in the first place.

Sure, your smartphone has a camera. It takes awesome 8-megapixel photos that you can upload to Instagram or Facebook where they're tagged, liked, and commented upon. But everybody's phone does that stuff. To truly stand out and claim your own hill on the island of photo-nerd coolness, you need one of these miniature cameras.

Tools for self-styled spies, objects of collector lust, pocket candy for the retro-fetish set -- no matter the motive, these tiny machines make picture-taking fun and different.

The Full Package

Kodak's Easy Share Mini M200 manages to house just about all the features of a larger point-and-shoot, but in a super-compact package that fits in the palm of your hand.

It lacks the visual panache of the other mini cams on our list. But since you can pick one up for between $70 and $90, it would make a great first digital camera, especially for a kid with small hands or an adult who doesn't own a smartphone (it's 3.5 inches wide and 2 inches tall, about the size of a business card). There are plenty of customizable options, but the basic controls still remain intuitive to use.

It takes photos up to 10 megapixels, and it has a good flash. In other respects, however, it's not really that much better than a smartphone camera. If size isn't one of the major reasons you're considering this pint-sized camera, you'd be better served digging up $50 to $100 more for something like a low-end PowerShot for slightly higher-quality images. But compared to the other tiny cams on our list, the M200 captures the best-quality images.

The top of the camera has buttons for power, the shutter, and image settings, and next to the 2.5-inch LCD on back, there are another half dozen clearly marked controls. The M200 starts out on Smart Capture mode to automatically adjust settings for general photo scenarios, but you can switch to one of 17 different scenes if you have a specific photographic need -- sunsets, action shots, panoramas. The high ISO setting for low-light shots performs admirably. You can also self-adjust the white balance, and there's a 3X optical zoom for close-ups.

The Easy Share camera comes with Kodak's Share Button desktop software. You enter your e-mail and social networking preferences, then, as you're out shooting photos and videos, you can select the ones you want to share using the hardware "Share" button on the back of the camera. The next time you plug the camera into your computer, the photos you selected will automatically be delivered to the destination you chose, whether it be to a specific e-mail account or your Facebook page. It seems unnecessary, given how easy it is to drag and drop photos to share them in different places on your desktop.

WIRED Slim, 3.5-ounce body is comfortable in a pocket. Fits in your palm, so it's easy to hide. Has a better lens, better sensor and better flash than most smartphones, even if only by a small margin. Convex mirror on the front for self portraits.

TIRED Lack of image stabilization can make for blurry photos without a flash, and shaky video if your hands aren't steady. Video resolution is VGA (640x480), no HD option.